Spaghetti design: How to do graphic design in the newspaper industry
The world of graphic design isn't always glamorous, doesn't always include wild parties with rich clients, and certainly doesn't guarantee much money. This couldn't be more true for the newspaper industry.
The goal of this post is to help you get comfortable with flying by the wire, designing using your first instinct, and getting effective designs cranked out in 15 minutes or less.
Some of you may be coming from a background of college-educated design, which is perfectly fine. You'll have a leg up on some people, because odds are, you'll have done promotional design and some layout/cover designs for mock printed media. If you don't have that experience, though, fear not; you don't need it.
I myself am completely self taught, and spent my time focused on art before I took the burden upon myself to become an artist for a newspaper.
The key thing to know with designing for a newspaper is you rarely have the luxury of time; you've got to go with your first idea quick (assuming you are given any creative freedom - in my experience, sales reps like to think they are designers, as do the clients), whether it is perfect or not. The question you probably have on your mind right now is probably something along the lines of, "but what if I don't HAVE an idea?" No problem.
The best way to build good ideas is to grab a national newspaper, a local/semi local newspaper, and a few magazines (not too industry specific; Women's gossip magazines are great, or even Playboys). Skim through those, look at the typefaces, colors, and layout; this will be what you build from. Go over it again later, but look at the ads you found most striking with a little more attention, studying the content. Pay special attention to the header, and how the body text/information is cut down to fit in the ad space. Do the same for cover designs.
You'll need a little experience in logo design, too, so if you don't have any, just hit a site like Brands of the World and start looking at what is going on there (this will also be a great resource for vector logos for big-name products advertisers may be selling). Once again, study the branding style vs. product and the overall image.
Now that you've built a little background for yourself, you can start building ads quickly - but you aren't ready yet. First, you need to prepare a core set of typefaces to use. I myself have 3 sans-serif fonts I use regularly (Univers, Grotesque, and Helvetica for good measure), plus a few others. Always have at least one of the following; a Didone (Bodoni or Didot), a serif font that you like the all caps/small caps variations on, a good light sans-serif, a script font, and a heavy/black serif (slab or otherwise). Of course, you'll want a few good serif fonts, too - you could always go with the standards (Garamond, Sabon, Minion, Poynter), but don't be afraid to look elsewhere. Another decision you'll need to make is for the people who want a "Comic Sans" style font. There are a few out there - Chalkboard is used regularly in my office (I hate it, personally). To be honest, I'd recommend you instead choose a nice rounded font. VAG Rounded would be my recommendation, in that instance. Most people won't notice the difference between a rounded and a comic-style typeface.
Finally, if you've seen a typeface you like but aren't sure what it is, there is hope: WhatTheFont. I've made liberal use of this site, personally, and will attest to it's usefulness. You'll also want this for advertisers who want you to run something from a slick that you'd rather reset rather than scan and print (when you have the time).
Lastly, you'll need a good stock photo/art resource. If you've got the scratch, I seriously recommend StockXpert, but Jupiter Images has a number of lower-budget (or free) resources, too.
Now, you're set. Go forth and design as quickly as you possibly can, because while the newspaper industry is in this state, it can't afford to waste money on you spending hours on a single quarter-page ad that is only running once.
The goal of this post is to help you get comfortable with flying by the wire, designing using your first instinct, and getting effective designs cranked out in 15 minutes or less.
Some of you may be coming from a background of college-educated design, which is perfectly fine. You'll have a leg up on some people, because odds are, you'll have done promotional design and some layout/cover designs for mock printed media. If you don't have that experience, though, fear not; you don't need it.
I myself am completely self taught, and spent my time focused on art before I took the burden upon myself to become an artist for a newspaper.
The key thing to know with designing for a newspaper is you rarely have the luxury of time; you've got to go with your first idea quick (assuming you are given any creative freedom - in my experience, sales reps like to think they are designers, as do the clients), whether it is perfect or not. The question you probably have on your mind right now is probably something along the lines of, "but what if I don't HAVE an idea?" No problem.
The best way to build good ideas is to grab a national newspaper, a local/semi local newspaper, and a few magazines (not too industry specific; Women's gossip magazines are great, or even Playboys). Skim through those, look at the typefaces, colors, and layout; this will be what you build from. Go over it again later, but look at the ads you found most striking with a little more attention, studying the content. Pay special attention to the header, and how the body text/information is cut down to fit in the ad space. Do the same for cover designs.
You'll need a little experience in logo design, too, so if you don't have any, just hit a site like Brands of the World and start looking at what is going on there (this will also be a great resource for vector logos for big-name products advertisers may be selling). Once again, study the branding style vs. product and the overall image.
Now that you've built a little background for yourself, you can start building ads quickly - but you aren't ready yet. First, you need to prepare a core set of typefaces to use. I myself have 3 sans-serif fonts I use regularly (Univers, Grotesque, and Helvetica for good measure), plus a few others. Always have at least one of the following; a Didone (Bodoni or Didot), a serif font that you like the all caps/small caps variations on, a good light sans-serif, a script font, and a heavy/black serif (slab or otherwise). Of course, you'll want a few good serif fonts, too - you could always go with the standards (Garamond, Sabon, Minion, Poynter), but don't be afraid to look elsewhere. Another decision you'll need to make is for the people who want a "Comic Sans" style font. There are a few out there - Chalkboard is used regularly in my office (I hate it, personally). To be honest, I'd recommend you instead choose a nice rounded font. VAG Rounded would be my recommendation, in that instance. Most people won't notice the difference between a rounded and a comic-style typeface.
Finally, if you've seen a typeface you like but aren't sure what it is, there is hope: WhatTheFont. I've made liberal use of this site, personally, and will attest to it's usefulness. You'll also want this for advertisers who want you to run something from a slick that you'd rather reset rather than scan and print (when you have the time).
Lastly, you'll need a good stock photo/art resource. If you've got the scratch, I seriously recommend StockXpert, but Jupiter Images has a number of lower-budget (or free) resources, too.
Now, you're set. Go forth and design as quickly as you possibly can, because while the newspaper industry is in this state, it can't afford to waste money on you spending hours on a single quarter-page ad that is only running once.
1 Comments:
Great advice. I think that the concepts you outlined can apply to not only just newspaper design, but design in general, especially with regards to font usage. You really don't need hundreds of fonts installed and using the same typefaces across multiple projects is not a sin!
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